


No Alternatives

by miss_tatiana



Category: No Evil (Web Series)
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, I'm sorry this is sad tm, adding onto canon, canon interpretation, happy ish, set after the most recent episode about them, this is about the asylum
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-01
Updated: 2017-07-01
Packaged: 2018-11-22 02:36:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,123
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11370804
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/miss_tatiana/pseuds/miss_tatiana
Summary: Set after Corn and Calamity are tossed from the cart after Kitty lost control. Alone in the freezing desert night, Calamity reveals her history with the city of Hollow as both reptiles try to fight falling into hibernation.





	No Alternatives

**Author's Note:**

> just my guess at what calamity's ties to the asylum might be. there should be more fics for this show!

After Calamity had fallen from the cart, she’d searched for Corn for what felt like hours. She knew that Kitty would be alright on her own, and as far as Calamity saw she didn’t even fall out, but Corn did, and he wouldn’t take care of himself. She finally came upon him, curled in on himself and shivering in the chill of the desert night.

“Hey, you alright?” Calamity asked, relief washing over her as she kneeled next to him. After he bit her during the winter she knew better than to touch him, but she took a seat next to him to let him know that she was there.

“I’m fine,” said Corn quietly. “Where is Kitty?” He shivered - well, he was always shivering - but he shivered a little more violently than usual.

Calamity shrugged. “I dunno.” It sounded very hopeless, out loud. Judging by how fast the cart had been going, Kitty could be miles away. “I think she’s still on the cart. Maybe not now, but when we fell off, she didn’t.”

Corn sighed, curling up tighter. “How will she find us?”

“No clue.” Calamity traced patterns in the sand, which was beginning to feel chilly, with her fork. Nights in the desert were notoriously cold and without their poppy coats, which neither of them had, they might pass out before the sun fully set. She didn't know what to do. A fire might be enough to keep them warm, but there was no wood out in the sand. "She'll be alright, though. Kitty's pretty resilient. She'll come back just to tell us how irresponsible it was not to hold onto the cart tighter."

Nodding, Corn pressed himself against her. "Do you think we could make it back to Hollow before we freeze?"

Calamity gritted her teeth. "We're not going back to Hollow."

"Okay," Corn said quietly. Then, a moment later, he asked, "but why not? It would be warmer, wouldn't it?"

"Maybe. Don't care."

"Calamity, Kitty practically raised us both. We're like family, in a way." Corn tucked his hands into his shirt. "You could explain this a little further, you can trust me."

Calamity tried not to think of when he'd bitten her. She did trust him, but he was volatile sometimes. "I don't wanna go. I'd rather freeze to death."

Corn's eyes widened, and a bit of fear flickering through them. "Is there a reason? I forgot to water my fields, and I want to make it back before they dry up. If I'm going to die out here, I want to understand why."

"Yeah, there's a reason, shmuck." Calamity crossed her arms over her knees, pulling them up against her chest. She wished her clothes were thicker. 

Corn looked over, twisting his neck in a way that only he could do. He was clearly expecting her to explain things to him, and, in all honestly, he deserved an explanation. 

Calamity sighed. "Alright, fine. Remember what I was telling you before we left? About the Industry Men?"

Corn nodded. 

"They weren't into the whole…" Calamity gestured vaguely, "believing in stuff thing. They didn't like old people or old rules or old ways, even though those still rule everything. So they thought up a way to take power away from all the old rules, and the spirits. All that. And that way was to trick everybody else into thinking anything that the science they brought couldn't explain was bad, and frightening. That's why Kitty and Icky wanted us to stay human while we were in Hollow."

"You already said that," Corn reminded her. 

"Yeah, I know, I'm getting to the point." Calamity glared over at him. "So basically, when we were growing up, Icky did whatever our parents wanted in order to help him fit it. He didn't want to stick out or cause trouble, and for him, being in his human form was easy. Probably not comfortable, but easy. I was a troublemaker as a kid, though. I didn't get along with my parents, and I hated having to look human."

Corn was watching her attentively, his interest combatting the lethargy that came from the cold. 

Calamity shifted. She felt uncomfortable as she neared information that only Icky knew. Whatever. If the cold really was going to knock them out soon, maybe Corn wouldn't even remember her telling him. "My parents were angry that I wasn't trying as hard to fit in as Icky was. And so when the Industry Men came through on one of their door to door rounds, they didn't try to hide me. They didn't even warn me. I got scooped up like a sack of potatoes and brought to this… place."

"The Asylum," Corn murmured, his eyelids starting to feel heavy, the chill from the sand seeping up through his scales and into his body. 

"Yeah. Right," confirmed Calamity, her voice full of bitterness. "That was it. Everything in the place was grey. No windows without bars on them. Food was gross. I basically grew up in there, in a room maybe… I dunno. Not even as wide as the river. Every morning, the lights would come on, too bright to sleep through, and every night, they'd shut off and the silence would be deadening. Hey, you still awake?"

Corn nodded. He was awake. Just barely, though, and he wouldn't be able to keep it up much longer. 

"The worse of it was," Calamity continued, "I couldn't take this form. I had to be human, all day, and even when I was sleeping. It was torture. If I slipped back into my natural-" She gestured to herself. "-this, one of the guards would shock me with these long things they carried." She looked over at Corn, who had almost succumbed to the cold. "That's why I don't wanna go back to Hollow. There."

Corn shifted his weight closer to her, trying to seek out any remaining warmth but also showing support and solace, in his own quiet way. "I didn't want to go back either," he murmured. "Everyone in the city thinks I'm a monster, after I bit that kid out in the square."

"So…" The anxiety that came with telling her story was fading, as was its ability to keep her awake. She felt cold, and she felt tired beyond belief. "We'll just wait it out here?"

Corn nodded, his eyes closed. He didn't feel panicked like he usually did when his body went into hibernation. He felt fulfilled, even almost calm. It was wonderful to be trusted enough to handle what Calamity had told him, especially after he bit her. It was like redemption. With the last bit of energy he had, he repeated, "We'll just wait it out here."


End file.
